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Incredible jump offers global moment

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoAssociated PressIn an image from video, Felix Baumgartner of Austria jumps from a capsule more than 24 miles above Earth. Baumgartner shattered the sound barrier Sunday while making the highest jump ever, landing in the New Mexico desert.

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Tuesday October 16, 2012 10:26 AM

ROSWELL, New Mexico — Felix Baumgartner stood poised in the open hatch of a capsule suspended
above Earth, wondering whether he would make it back alive. Twenty-four miles below him, millions
of people were watching on the Internet and television.

A second later, he stepped off and barreled toward the desert. The Austrian-born Baumgartner
shattered the sound barrier Sunday and landed safely about nine minutes later, becoming the first
supersonic sky diver.

The jump was part scientific wonder, part reality show, with the live-streamed event capturing
the world’s attention. It proved, once again, the power of the Internet in a world where news
travels as fast as Twitter.

The event happened without a network broadcast in the United States, though organizers said TV
channels in 50 countries carried the live feed. Instead, people flocked online, with more than 8 m
illion simultaneous views of a YouTube live stream at its peak, YouTube officials said.

More than 130 digital outlets carried the feed, organizers said.

The privately funded feat came during a lull in human space exploration. As the jump unfolded,
the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour crept toward a Los Angeles museum, where it will spend its
retirement on display.

The dive was more than just a stunt. NASA, which was not involved in the jump, is eager to
improve its spacecraft and spacesuits for emergency escape.